Natalie Papillion is a drug policy and criminal justice reform-focused writer, organizer and policy wonk who currently serves as the Director of Strategic Initiatives for the Last Prisoner Project, a national not-for-profit organization working at the intersection of cannabis policy and criminal justice reform. She also sits on the organization’s Board of Directors.
Papillion concurrently serves as the Executive Director of The Equity Organization, a New York-based nonprofit focused on advancing just, equitable and effective drug policies and their attendant criminal justice-related reforms. Papillion also sits on the Board of Directors at Second Chance Studios, a nonprofit that trains and employs formerly incarcerated individuals for stable, living-wage roles in the digital media space.
Prior to her time in the drug policy and criminal justice reform space, Papillion worked in the private sector, where she held various strategy, marketing and operations leadership positions at large technology firms like Google and Rent the Runway.
Papillion is a graduate of Yale University, where her research and scholarship concentrated on the social, cultural and political history of Black communities in the United States. She is currently hard at work on her forthcoming history “Reefer Madness: The Unredacted History Behind Drug Prohibition in America”.